


You've Got Love

by Jellic0



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Cheerful, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Mentions of Racism, Minor Violence, Nightmares, POV Original Female Character, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Post-Undertale Pacifist Route, Reader is kind, Slow Burn, Swearing, happy story with sad plot in between, reader character is very positive, reader is a firefighter, sans doesn't like reader at start
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-17
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-03-05 21:45:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13396872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jellic0/pseuds/Jellic0
Summary: Recently monsters came up from the undergound. Living in Wisconsin, Devyn didn't hear much beyond that until an event harshly opened her eyes to the changes in the world. She goes on to meet more and more monsters as they move to the area just trying to fit in without any problems. She's been doing her best to be welcoming and stand up for monsters rights, so why does one particular skeleton have a problem with her?





	1. New Faces

I had gone to work that day just like any other shift in the beautiful summers of Wisconsin. The sun was shining, a few stark white, fluffy clouds floated lazily in the sky. I looked down at my hands which were completely covered in blood. I then looked over to the man next to me who was staring down at his own dripping red hands. It’s not like it was the first time we’ve had to do something like this, yet we were both stunned. 

I let my eyes linger a moment longer with him before I pulled my gaze away to finally look at what was causing us both to freeze. On the ground in front of me was a small monster. He was scaly like a reptile, claws, and teeth included, though they were small and didn’t seem very sharp or intimidating. He was wearing a striped green and yellow shirt, plaid pants, and some very worn tennies. His eyes would have been a gorgeous bright blue, but that’s not the reason I couldn’t stop looking at them. They were wide open, blank and unseeing. Some of the blood from the wound had gotten smeared on the young monster’s face, creating even more of a contrast with the color of his eyes.

“Ar… are you okay, Danny?” I asked the man next to me shakily.

He turned to me finally, a blank look on his face. Mine probably looked exactly the same. “Yeah, I’m okay. Let’s get cleaned up.” He stood up and I moved to follow him after one more glance at the monster. I turned and walked back towards the ambulance, stripping off my gloves and throwing them away. Danny passed me some hand sanitizer that I rubbed in quickly before grabbing some towels and water.

“Hey, Gabe!” I called to the police officer on the other side of the rig. “Do you need anything else before we start moving?”

“No, we got all we could.” He came over and put a hand on my shoulder reassuringly. “We’ll find ‘em Dev.”

I nodded to him in acknowledgment and turned to start cleaning up the body, but before I could I froze in shock and watched as it slowly started disappearing, turning into what looked like dust. “Danny!” I yelped, confused and worried about what I was seeing.

“What the..?” His eyes widened, so at least I knew I wasn’t hallucinating or something.

“Wow, I didn’t know it was true,” Gabe mumbled, walking up behind us. I gave him a questioning glance. “Some officers from other cities closer to Mt. Ebott where the monsters first showed up had a few cases of similar circumstances. Their reports had said that there was nobody left after the fact because they seemed to turn into dust shortly after they died.”

The monster was now almost gone, only his face remained, but even that was slowly disintegrating as well. “So this is just something that happens to monsters? We don’t have anything for the family.”

“I’ll figure that all out, you two have dealt with enough today. Go back and get something to eat, I know this interrupted your dinner,” Gabe said kindly.

“Thanks, Gabe. We appreciate all the help. If you need us you know where we are.” We turned away slowly and I jumped in the passenger seat, wishing desperately we could get back to the station and relax for a while. I needed some time to clear my head.

It hadn’t been long since monsters came up out of Mt Ebott, so we didn’t really know much about them yet. Unfortunately, humans haven’t exactly been known for their kindness towards other species at times. Heck, not even within our own species really. But for someone to just up and kill a child like that… some people were just atrocious.

“How are you doing, Dev?” Danny asked, sounding a little tense himself.

“I’ll be okay. It’s never easy when you have to work on a kid like that.”

“Tell me about it. Whoever did this will get what’s coming to them.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled, lost in thought once again.  


* * *

We had made it back to the station and finally got to sit down for dinner. Everyone else on duty was already in the lounge watching Jeopardy and competitively yelling out answers. I wished I felt like joining in, but my mind kept straying back to earlier. I surfed the web looking for information on monsters. If their anatomy was similar to ours, how I should treat them medically, but I couldn’t find anything of value. Most everything I looked at was racist rants, political gripes of what they would be allowed to do, where they could live, whether or not they could hold a job. It was a lot of things I didn’t particularly want to see, just proving how unaccepting people were. Things would get better, but in the meantime, I just need to know how to treat these new patients. So much more to learn, like always in this field. 

Suddenly the doorbell rang, which was unusual at this time of night. I took a quick glance at everyone else before I got up to go answer it. I’m not sure if anyone else even heard it they were so engrossed in their game show. I made my way down the hallway and peeked out the door to see who was there. To my surprise, there was a monster standing there wringing their hands. They looked eerily like my patient from earlier. I opened the door and they almost jumped as they looked up at me quick enough to cause whiplash.

“Good evening! What can I do for you?” I asked.

“Well, you see... Um... There was an accident earlier... Involving someone who looked like me... Was your ambulance, by chance, the on that went there?” She asked, nervous. She was really struggling.

“Yeah, we… my partner and I were the ones that responded,” I explained.

“Firstly, I want to thank you for trying so hard to help. He was my cousin and we had just moved here cause he heard about this really nice school he wanted to attend, but people haven’t exactly been the nicest to us here.”

“Please, please come in. My name’s Devyn.” I held the door open for her and she followed me inside. “Let me get an officer and we can sit down so you can tell us everything that’s happened to you since you’ve moved here. We want to make sure that you’re safe, Miss?”

“Just Halbet, please. Thank you, Devyn.”

We sat down with an officer and after her story, I was completely outraged. Blatant threats, destruction of her property, and even physical contact once or twice before. Unacceptable. Halbet left with an escort for the time being whilst everything was under investigation. At least she was safe, but what about other monsters that chose to move into town?

It was late, but we called an emergency meeting. Police, fire, and EMS personnel all sat down and discussed what needed to be done. 

“It needs to be addressed immediately with the mayor! These people need to know the consequences! It’s murder!” I exclaimed.

“It will. I’ll leave a message for the mayor right when I leave here so we can hopefully get this straightened out first thing in the morning,” the chief of the fire department answered.

“In the meantime, since we know we have monsters interested in moving into the area we’ll put out extra patrols,” the chief of police added.

This went on for a while about how we could ensure safe environments for newcomers. After what felt like an extremely long meeting we all gratefully parted and I finally made my way to the bunk room for some much-needed shut-eye.  


* * *

I woke up the next day ready to head home after my stressful shift. Unfortunately for me, the universe had other plans. I heard a bit of a commotion in the kitchen, so I made my way out there to see what was going on.

“Did you see her? Like, wow! It was kind of sexy, in a weird, fishy sort of way.” I heard a bunch of laughter. Glad everyone was in a good mood at least. I turned the corner to see one of the guys, Joe, was holding his hands behind his ears with his fingers fanned out, and were those toothpicks sticking out of his mouth like fangs? The guy sitting across from him, Adam had a huge blush going on as everyone else was dying of laughter.

“Dev!” Danny waved me over. I stepped over to him, his cute smile contagious as I found one forming on my face. Danny was a cute guy, short blonde hair that he spiked up in the front, deep blue eyes. He wasn’t much taller than me, and I was short, but he was built like a brick.

“So what’s going on in here?” I chuckled at everyone’s excited faces.

“Well, we had some visitors this morning…” Danny began explaining.

“And someone fell in love at first sight!” The tall dark haired guy, Joe, who had been doing the teasing with the toothpicks before, shot a pointed look at Adam, who was still blushing and burying his face in his hands.

“So who was this mysterious visitor who’s stolen his heart?” I chuckled, playing along.

“She was a blue fish monster! Blue scales, like the ocean, with a mane of fiery red hair atop her head. She had fangs the size of a walrus!” Joe exuberantly told his tale.

“Oh my God! She didn’t have fangs!” Adam groaned.

“Alright, maybe I exaggerated slightly.”

“Anyway,” Danny added, “she was a total bad-ass. Came in here waving this glowing blue spear around all heated talking about how happy she was we were taking their side and helping them push things through to the mayor. She was very… Passionate.” 

“She brought this skeleton guy with her too. Man, was he a riot! His voice had like one level, and that was way up here,” Joe held his hand above his head to emphasize his point. “He kept yelling about how great he was, and how great she was, and how we all were pretty awesome and might one day be able to match his greatness.”

“You’re kidding me?” I laughed. “I missed all that?”

“They had gone over to chat with the cops right before you got out here. If you hurry you’ll probably still catch them. You’ll like the fish babe. She’s your type,” Danny winked at me.

“No, she’s not!” Adam’s mouth seemed to have spoken before his brain could process because when he realized what he said his face could have rivaled a tomato.

We all burst out laughing again at him. “Somebody jealous?” I teased. “Don’t worry, bro, you know I’m straight.”

“Not for long!” Danny called after me, accompanied by more laughing.

I made my way down the hall and into the other half of the building which housed the police. If I thought my boys were bad this morning I hadn’t heard anything yet. I could hear two extremely loud voices carrying through the door that was between me and them. I knocked briefly, not sure if they’d even hear me. I opened the door and stepped inside, and what a sight greeted me. The first one that I noticed was the skeleton. He was wearing what appeared to be some goofy looking red armor with a short red cape to go along with it. He really was just bones too. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting when the guys had given their explanation of the two guests, but they were spot on. I tore my gaze from the funnily dressed skeleton to look at the other visitor. I thought Danny was built like a brick, but this lady blew him out of the water. I almost couldn’t stop looking at her biceps, but her sharp teeth caught my attention when she laughed. They were like shark teeth! She noticed me looking at her and sharply squared with a glare. “What are you looking at, punk?”

“Heh, hey!” I smiled nervously. “My name’s Devyn. I work across the hall, but I missed you when you stopped by. I figured I’d come introduce myself before you left.”

“HELLO HUMAN!” the skeleton bounded its way up to me, his volume stuck at full excited yell. “I AM THE GREAT PAPYRUS! I’M GLAD YOU MADE IT OVER BEFORE WE LEFT! I COULDN’T BEAR THE THOUGHT OF HOW SAD YOU’D BE IF YOU WERE NOT ABLE TO MEET ME!” He smiled brightly and struck a pose. I almost burst out laughing, but the other monster jumped in.

“She wasn’t talking to you, Pap!” One quick stiff arm to the skeletons face sent him skidding across the room. I blinked and the fish lady was right in my face. I flinched back in surprise. “Name’s Undyne, punk! I’m the head of the monster’s police force!”

“OOH UNDYNE! TELL HER MY TITLE!” Papyrus boomed, basically vibrating with excitement.

Undyne rolled her eyes affectionately. “Papyrus is… the right hand of the police chief!” She announced dramatically. I watch Papyrus beam; his eyes even sparkled.

“OH UNDYNE, YOU’RE TOO KIND!” he fanned himself with a bony hand as I noticed a light coloring appear on his cheekbones. 

I laughed at the pair, and I could see a few of the human officers in the room covering up their chuckles. “You two are so cool!” I smiled at them.

“Of course we are! We’re fucking awesome!” Undyne practically shrieked. 

“THANK YOU HUMAN! YOU’RE PRETTY COOL YOURSELF!” Papyrus shot me a thumbs up.

“If you ever need help with anything let me know. I’ll make it happen.” I offered.

“Wow, you two are lucky! Dev is a good person to have on your side. She’s got connections everywhere! Scott spoke up from where the guys had gathered in the center of the room.

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN HUMAN OFFICER? I DON’T SEE ANYTHING SHE IS CONNECTED TO?” Papyrus started poking me gently and waving his hands in front of me.

“No, no, Papyrus,” I laughed softly as the rest of the room cracked up. “It’s a figure of speech. It means I know a lot of people.”

“OH! I UNDERSTAND! YOU’RE CONNECTED TO MANY PEOPLE ROMANTICALLY!”

My face was suddenly on fire. All the laughter was deafening. The other occupants of the room were clutching their stomachs and leaning against things to steady themselves.

“NO! NO! Papyrus, NO!” I yelled, probably matching his loud volume. “Just friends! I’m not seeing anyone romantically! No one!” I was waving my hands frantically trying to emphasize my points.

“I’M SORRY HUMAN! I’VE EMBARRASSED YOU! HOW CAN I MAKE IT UP TO YOU?”

“You can come back and visit again!” Scott, the blonde officer in the room, piped up before I could say anything.

“OF COURSE! THAT’S A GREAT IDEA! UNDYNE, WE MUST COME BACK TOMORROW TO CHECK ON THEM!”

“It’s really okay!” I reassured him. “Besides, I’m off tomorrow, so I won’t be here.”

He deflated somewhat at that before Scott chipped in again. “But she’ll be here the day after that, so you can stop by then.” I watched as Pap jumped right back up to full on giddy.

“CONSIDER IT A DATE, HUMAN! NOW WE MUST BE OFF! MY BROTHER IS WAITING FOR ME! HE JUST DOESN’T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITHOUT THE GREAT PAPYRUS TO TAKE CARE OF HIM! DON’T MISS ME TOO MUCH!” He struck a noble pose and sprinted out the door. I stared after him, flabbergasted.

“See ya on Thursday, punk!” Undyne reached over and gave me a noogie before racing out the door after Papyrus.

I looked at the three guys left in the room with me. As soon as I made eye contact with them they burst out laughing again. I couldn’t help but join in after the hilarity we just witnessed. After a few moments, we finally quieted down and wiped some tears from our faces. “Alright, guys, it’s been fun, but I need to get home.”

“Don’t worry; we’ll be doing it again in a few days!” They laughed again. I flicked them off as I turned to the door and got the hell out of that building.  


* * *

I finally opened the door to my house exhausted. I stepped just inside, stomped my foot on the ground and whistled. There was a loud boom and the sound of scratching on a wood floor. A large white blur flew into the room and barreled into me, knocking me to the ground. She licked my face furiously as I hugged her and scratched her head. I sat up and she kept head-butting and pawing at me. “Yes, Kuda, I’m home sweetie. Now, who wants to go outside and play?” I jumped up and she barked before sprinting around the room. I ran to the back door to play with my 3-year-old Great Pyrenees puppy.

I flung the tennis ball for what felt like the hundredth time that morning, but as always Kuda kept chasing after it, just as excited as the first time it flew through the air. She sprinted back to me and dropped the green ball by my feet. I reached down to scratch her ears for her and she leaned into my hand, enjoying the attention. “Break time girl. Let’s get you a drink and cool you down a little.” I patted my hip in a gesture that meant follow me, and she happily obliged, padding after me with her tongue lolling out of her mouth. I ran the hose, filling up a water dish and Kuda went to town on it, splashing water mixed with slobber all over the place.

After Kuda drank her fill she plopped down next to my chair on the deck, apparently ready for a nap. She had run around the yard quite a few times already, so she had a right to be tired. I clicked open my phone as I enjoyed the warm summer air looking out onto my large backyard. I did well for myself. My house was two stories on 5 acres of land a ways away from the city I worked in. It had 3 bedrooms, two baths, and a large open concept Living room and kitchen combo. But the deck and my yard were by far the best part. Enough land to keep me separated from anyone else. Just me, Kuda, and the wildlife to keep us company. It was so peaceful after a long shift of dealing with all kinds of people all day.

I looked back to my phone noticing a couple new messages from Danny. ‘Hey Dev, wanna come over for dinner 2nite? Niki is making your fav.’ The second message read, ‘And Ace misses his gf!’ I chuckled at that. “Hear that Kuda? Your boy toy wants to play later.” I looked down at her. She tiredly thumped her tail on the ground in acknowledgment. “Better go inside and get you a nap first, eh girl? C’mon.” I stood up and opened the door for her. She rolled herself up onto her paws lazily and slowly trudged past me and straight into the Living room. I quickly dumped some food into her bowl and set off to make myself some breakfast. I diddled around on social media for a while scanning over the more recent posts about the monsters. Some of them were as bad as I was expecting them to be, but for the most part, at least from my friend’s feeds, people were taking well to having new neighbors. I then went on to some local news sites and whatever joy I felt from the acceptance was immediately squashed. 

There was a photo from the incident the other day. Danny and I slouched over the wounded monster child. The article itself wasn’t the issue. The comments on it, however, were extremely unsettling.

‘Shows what happens when those things try to move into our city!”

‘Why are those medics even wasting their time trying to help it? It obviously had it coming.’

I slammed my phone down on the counter. Why were people so fucking stupid and arrogant? If they would just take the time to talk to these monsters they’d see how similar we all are, but I suppose that isn’t the point. They’re just another outlet for violence and discrimination. Whether it’s each other, or now these poor monsters, people will always find ways to be hurtful. 

I finished making breakfast and sat down on the couch with Kuda to eat. I didn’t bother turning on the TV. I don’t think I could deal with any more racist comments towards monsters right now. The only things that set my mind at ease was knowing the mayor would be working to push something through to fix these issues at least in our city. Hopefully, we can be an example for others to follow and make changes for the better.

Once I had finished eating I sent a reply to Danny and set off getting ready for the day. The shower felt like magic and I really didn’t want to get out. Eventually, I did and wrung out my long dark brown hair. I put a bit of eyeliner on, looking at my irises that decided to be blue today. Maybe they’d stay blue for a while, or maybe tomorrow they’d be back to green. I threw on some jeans and an old t-shirt as I ran down the stairs. “Wanna go to the store with me girl?” I asked as I stepped by my fluffy white ball who was still buried in the couch. She snorted in return and didn’t move. “Taking that as a no. I’ll be back in a little!” I called, running out the door.  


* * *

I returned home, two large grocery bags in my arms. I fumbled with the door for a few moments before successfully jimmying it open without the use of my hands. Slamming the door with my foot I tossed the bags on the counter and set out my cutting board and a couple of knives. Soon I had fallen into a rhythm; chop, slide into a bowl, throw the scraps on the floor for my puppy who was staring intently at my hands so as to not miss any freebies.

Just as the salsa got finished the clock struck four and it was time to head over to Danny’s. Kuda was racing around with all sorts of newfound energy from her nap and snacks. I quickly ushered her into the truck and took off down the road towards town.

“Have you had any monsters trying to move into your area?” the host of the radio show I was listening to asked piquing my interest.

“Thank goodness, no!” I cringed at the woman who had called in and said that. “I have three kids, ya know, and I can barely sleep at night as is with those things running around. I wouldn’t be able to let them out of my sight if those creatures lived anywhere near me!”

 

“I know exactly what you’re talking about. I have a young boy myself, and I can’t help but worry myself sick over the fact that these monsters are migrating closer and closer. Thanks for calling!” the hostess continued, “Now here we’ve still got Doug on the other line. Hi Doug! What are your thoughts on the issue?”

“Well I live up in Green Bay, and I saw one of them things on the sidewalk on my way to work the other day. If that’s not terrifying I don’t know what is. I can’t understand why we’re letting ‘em roam around. Something needs to be done.”

I jammed my finger harshly onto the power button of my stereo before the hostess could reply. It made me sick. Had I not noticed all this racism towards monsters until today? It’s not like they had just surfaced a few days ago; it’s been almost a year! How did I not know it was this bad? Granted it’s just now come to my area, but boy had I been oblivious. Maybe it had to do with the monster kid or the nightmares that haven’t stopped the last few nights. I finally had something open my eyes to all the bullshit.

I pulled into Danny’s, looking forward to getting my mind of these recent events. Kuda barreled up to the door, knowing exactly where we were. It opened and a brown ball of fur flew past her outside and she raced after it. Niki was standing in the doorway laughing at the pair.

“Heya, Nik! How’s it going?” I called, grabbing my salsa and making my way over to her.

“Good! Supper is just finishing up, so come on in,” she smiled cheerfully, holding the door open wider for me to shuffle in and make my way to the kitchen. I set my stuff down and Danny immediately popped the chips open and dug in. I smacked his shoulder and glared at him playfully.

“What?” he asked innocently. “I had to make sure it was good!” I chuckled and plopped down on the couch to finish watching Deadpool. Danny and I were cracking up at basically every scene. Damn, this was such a good movie! We were such Marvel nerds.

“Alright, dorks, come and eat!” Niki called from the kitchen. We both scrambled to the table, forks and knives already in hand, ready to devour her famous lasagna. Honestly, it had to have been the shortest meal yet. It felt like we set a new record for how fast a person could eat every time we sat down for our dinners. We quickly cleaned up the dishes and headed back to the other room to lounge while our stomachs settled. I sat on the larger couch with the German Sheppard, Ace, on my left, and my fluff ball on the right, while Danny and Nicole cuddled up on the love seat. 

“So, Dev, what’s new with you? Meet anyone interesting lately? Specifically of the male variety?”

“Oh, darling, who did you want to set me up with this time?” I chuckled.

“No one, really! Although, a little birdie told me you made some new friends, and it seemed a little fishy, so I had to ask.”

I laughed at her pun. “Oh, you must mean Undyne! Yeah, she and Papyrus seem pretty cool. They’re certainly eccentric. Which reminds me, they’re planning on stopping in again on our next shift.”

“I told you she was your type!” Danny teased. I flipped him off and gave him the stink eye as we all laughed. I told them the story of what happened when I went over to the cop shop, and oh boy did they get a kick out of that.

“Maybe we should invite them over for dinner sometime to welcome them to town. Seems like they’d be a lot of fun,” Niki suggested.

We nodded our agreement, but it was getting late. I corralled my tired pup into my vehicle, said my goodbyes and drove home in silence, not wanting anything to ruin my now wonderful mood. Hopefully, it’d be a good enough mood to keep away the nightmares for once so I could get a good night’s sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone!
> 
> Just wanted to put it out there that I just started a tumblr, under the same username: Jellic0. I plan to put up some artwork for the story on there once I get around to creating it. I'll keep you updated in notes when I post anything!
> 
> Thanks for reading! 
> 
> Jellic0 :)


	2. Another Day At Work

I waltzed into work Thursday morning, feeling energized and ready to take on the world. I nearly tackled Danny and Joe when they got there. “You know what day it is today, right boys?” I asked them. Danny groaned in response, trying to push me away as he shuffled to the kitchen for some coffee. Joe, however, looked just as excited as I felt. He and I ran out to the garages to set up our obstacle course while we waited for our partner in crime to wake up fully. 

We threw equipment back and forth as we laid things out in a specific order. The three of us made up the engine company today so we used this as a way to check all our equipment as well as get a little competitive workout going. And by golly were we ever the competitive bunch. It was as bad as you could imagine three firefighters who had worked together for the past 4 years being towards each other.

Danny finally joined us after we had gotten everything spread out. “Alright, short stuff, listen up,” Joe began, throwing his arms around both my and Danny’s shoulders. Joe easily had 6 inches on the both of us. “We’re gonna have ourselves a little race. Get your gear on, including being on air. Next, run with this hose to the base of the stairs. Roll it, tie it off, and hoist it through that window up to the second floor. Lower it back down, unroll it, drag it back here, and finally get your shit back off and ready to start over. Got it?”

“Piece of cake,” Danny smirked confidently. “You couldn’t come up with anything actually challenging, old man?” he squared up with Joe. And so the smack talk began.

He grabbed Danny in a giant bear hug and lifted him off the ground effortlessly. “Who you calling an old man? I could still kick your little ass!”

“You know it doesn’t really matter cause I’m gonna kick both your asses six ways to Sunday,” I tossed in, grinning at them. They both glared back at me.

We finally all got ready to start after a little more playful banter. With some effort, we had convinced the two guys riding on the ambulance that day to come out and be our judges. They screamed go and we raced through the course. I took the lead initially but lost it before long due to my shorter stature during the running portion. It went back and forth like that through the whole race. We were neck and neck as we raced back to the beginning. I noticed two more faces had joined the room. Papyrus and Undyne both looked extremely curious and were getting more and more excited by whatever the ambulance crew was telling them.

The monsters having distracted me for a moment caused me to fall behind and ended up being the last one getting my equipment off. Danny, of course, didn’t miss a beat. “What happened, Dev? You seemed a little out of it at the end there. See something you like over there?” he waggled his eyebrows, nudging me towards the two monsters. I laughed and gave him a noogie before making my way over to say hello.

“HUMAN!” Papyrus raced over to meet me half way. “THIS TRAINING THAT YOU’RE DOING LOOKS MAGNIFICENT! MAY WE JOIN YOU? UNDYNE AND I ARE ALWAYS LOOKING FOR NEW WAYS TO PUSH OURSELVES!”

“Of course!” I exclaimed excitedly waving for them to follow me. “We should have some extra gear around your size.” With Joe and Danny helping we found them some gear in no time and were showing them the process of getting it all on.

“IS ALL OF THIS JUST FOR TRAINING? IT IS VERY BULKY AND RESTRICTING.”

“Nope. We wear all this whenever we respond to fires. It blocks the heat for us so we can survive inside burning buildings long enough to put fires out,” I explained.

“Hold up, punk! You’re telling me you run right into the middle of fires with this shit on?” Undyne questioned, looking shocked and impressed.

“We sure do!” Joe jumped in, pulling a small lighter out of his pocket. “Check this out.” He clicked the lighter on and grabbed for Papyrus’ hand. Before I could blink Undyne was between them and harshly shoved Joe. He stumbled back a few steps before putting his hands up in a non-threatening gesture.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Undyne practically growled at him. It took me a few moments to realize what happened, and that Undyne was seriously upset. Papyrus looked stunned and nervous behind her. Danny had backed away from the group all together to avoid whatever was going to happen. I needed to calm everyone down.

“Hey!” I called, gathering everyone’s attention. “It was just a little trick, Undyne. It wasn’t meant to hurt anyone. Here, let me show you.” I reached out for the lighter which was then tossed to me. She flinched when I lit it up but other than that continued watching. Her eyes held a warning that if I was lying to her things weren’t going to end well. I passed my hand over it briefly to show that it didn’t hurt then proceeded to put my glove on. I held my hand directly over the flame for a good few seconds. Her eyes widened.

“WOWIE! YOU’RE TELLING ME THAT REALLY DOESN’T HURT?” Papyrus ran forward clearly blown away by the process, the tense atmosphere from a moment ago quickly forgotten. He jabbed his hand in my face wanting to try for himself. 

I chuckled at his excitement. “Alright, Pap, take your glove off first so you can feel that this is a real fire.” He happily obliged, pulling his hand out to expose his bony fingers. “Now just get close enough to feel the heat. I don’t want you to hurt yourself. “He carefully moved his hand closer before jerking it back quickly.

“I FELT IT HUMAN, IT IS INDEED WARM!” He affirmed.

“Okay, now put the glove back on and keep it right above the flame.” He what I asked and his eyes widened in disbelief.

“I CAN’T FEEL IT! IT’S LIKE NOTHING IS THERE! AND IT’S REALLY THE GLOVE DOING THAT? IF SO I NEED A PAIR FOR COOKING! I TEND TO BURN MYSELF A LOT.”

“Well these ones here are pretty expensive, but maybe we can find an old pair laying around here that would fit you.”

“THANK YOU!” He shocked me by suddenly pulling me into a hug. I barely had time to squeeze back before he had twisted around to talk to the other monster in the room. “UNDYNE, YOU MUST TRY THIS!” She trotted over to me just as Papyrus bounced off to chat with my coworkers. 

“Sorry about my little outburst.” She apologized looking really frustrated. “It’s just we’ve had a really rough time with humans up here, and Pap, well he trusts everyone immediately. Doesn’t really understand that some people are capable of hurting him. I’m a little protective of him.”

“Hey, don’t worry about it, please. You’ve got to look out for each other, I know what that’s like. I’d do anything for those two. They’re like family.” 

She gave me a lopsided smile. “Ya know what, punk? You’re alright in my book. Now show me this crazy trick!”

* * *

As expected Undyne flipped out over the lighter trick and her and Pap couldn’t stop talking about it. That is until we had them line up for the training evolution. The smack talk had started immediately and didn’t stop until they had run through the course four times. They were unbelievably competitive and very sore losers on top of that. I’m pretty sure their screaming could drown out our sirens when they got heated.

“TAKE THAT UNDYNE! I AM THE VICTOR!” Pap struck a noble pose after throwing all this gear haphazardly on the ground.

“STOW IT BONEHEAD!” Undyne quickly ripped the last of her equipment off and lunged at him. They fell to the ground and tumbled multiple times before Undyne succeeded in putting him in a headlock. “TAP OUT”

“NEVER!” Pap screamed back at her and rolled her back over. 

“Take er down Pap!” I cheered enthusiastically.

“Crush him, Undyne!” Joe chimed in.

This went on for quite a while, each of us yelling motivation to the two monsters wrestling on the ground. Eventually, they broke apart panting and shook calling it a tie for now. 

“THANK YOU FOR HAVING US HUMANS! YOUR TRAINING REGIMINE IS QUITE DEMANDING!”

“Yeah, I’m definitely going to incorporate some of this into the new recruit training,” Undyne smirked. “They’re really going to hate it now! Fuhuhu!”

“HUMAN, I’M AFRAID TO SAY WE MUST GET GOING! LOTS OF IMPORTANT WORK TO BE DONE PATROLLING AND KEEPING EVERYONE SAFE! BUT HERE,” Pap handed me his cell, “SO WE CAN KEEP IN TOUCH SINCE WE’LL BE WORKING TOGETHER FROM NOW ON.”

I quickly punched my number in and saved it under Firefighter Devyn so there wouldn’t be any confusion. “Here you go Pap! Feel free to call or message me whenever you need anything.”

“THANK YOU HUMAN!”

“Yeah, thanks for letting us join in punk! We’ll see you around!” Undyne waved and practically threw Pap out the door. I could hear them yelling excitedly at each other the entire way out of the building.

“Well boys, I don’t think the rest of the day is going to be quite that entertaining,” I chuckled.

“We’ll see about that!” Joe punched my shoulder and jogged over to start picking up our tools.

“Don’t jinx us you assholes!” Danny yelled after him.

I just laughed and went to give them a hand.

* * *

Not five minutes after they had left my phone started buzzing like crazy. Seeing as I’m not normally that popular there’s only one person, or should I say skeleton, that could be.

9:47 XXX-XXX-XXXX

“Hello, firefighter Devyn! I wanted to text you right away so you would have my number in case you needed to get a hold of me!” I smiled at the endearing message, quickly putting his info in my contacts. 

9:48 Paps

“Don’t hesitate to call me if you need someone to talk to!”

9:49 Paps

“We are headed out for a long day of fighting crime!” There was a picture of Undyne and him in their patrol car attached to this message, both of them smiling brightly. If there’s one thing I was sure of after the last few days, I wouldn’t be bored anytime soon with these new characters in town.

9:51 Firefighter Devyn

“Thanks, Paps! I’ll be sure to keep you updated throughout the day as long as you do the same! Be safe out there!”

He replied only a moment later with a long string of happy emojis that fit the cheerful skeleton oh so well. I chuckled and made my way out by my boys to start the workday.

* * *

“You just had to go and jinx us, didn’t you!!” I yelled at Joe as we were pulling back into the station. 

He laughed at my outburst. “Oh, can it! You had fun, don’t try to deny it. Besides, we saved the guy.”

I huffed. “Alright, I’ll give you a break this time since it turned out well.”

“Both you need to quit your yapping! We need to focus on this important time of day… Dinner time!” Danny yelled from the back of the truck as he leaps out the door as soon as it was stopped.

Joe and I both laughed. “Well, we can’t keep our little boy waiting!” I jumped out slightly slower and made my way into the kitchen while Joe cleaned up the rig. “What’s for dinner tonight?”

“It’s gonna have to wait, Dev, come down to the office,’ Danny called out. I made my way down the hallway and stepped inside to see our boss, Chad, sitting there, Danny having already taken a seat in front of his desk.

“Afternoon, Chief, how’s it going?” I asked politely.

“Damn good now. I’ve got some good news for you.” I excitedly took a seat next to Danny. “You were both at the meeting the other week for the monsters’ rights, and the mayor is passing a new ordinance to cover while we wait on the federal government to catch up. Monsters within this city shall be considered full citizens with the exact same rights as everyone else.” I nearly jumped up in joy. I glanced over at Danny and could see he felt exactly the same. 

“That’s fantastic news, sir!” I exclaimed. “Is there going to be an official announcement? There’s bound to be some push-back from certain areas of the public.”

“Yes, there will be an announcement. You’re right, but we’ll still have extra patrols on duty until things start to calm down. As for us, we’d like to start including monsters in some of the public relation events that we hold. You two talked to those visitors we had the other day, what do you think about those two?”

“Absolutely!” Danny chimed in. “They’re awesome! You’ve basically got to love them!”

“Perfect. Do you have a way to get in touch with them? We’ll formally invite them to our next fire protection day downtown,” the chief suggested.

“Yeah, I have Papyrus’s number. I’ll give him a call and let him know what’s going on.” I answered.

“Thanks. I won’t keep you any longer from dinner then. I know how impatient Danny here can be.”

“That’s right! I’m basically starving over here chief!” Danny bounced up and turned to the door. “Thanks for the great news!” and with that, he was gone to focus on our meal.

“See ya later chief. Don’t work too hard.”

“Have a safe shift,” he smiled as I exited into the hallway. 

I made my way to the kitchen to see Danny chucking pieces of food from the fridge across the room to Joe who was making a pile by the stove. “I gotta make a quick phone call, then I’ll be back to help cook.”

They both mumbled a response as they continued to make an absolute mess. I stepped out quickly and dialed up Pap.

“HELLO HUMAN! I HOPE YOU DIDN’T MISS ME TOO TERRIBLY, BUT I’M SURE THAT’S WHY YOU’RE CALLING NOW. I’M SO GLAD THIS PHONE CAN HELP EASE YOUR LONELINESS.” Papyrus answered energetically as usual.

“Heya Pap! I gotta say I did miss you a little bit! You made our morning very entertaining!”

“WELL OF COURSE! I WOULDN’T ALLOW MY DEAR FRIENDS TO BE BORED WITHOUT ME TO BRIGHTEN THEIR DAY! IN FACT, SINCE YOU ARE FRIENDS OF THE GREAT PAPYRUS YOU GET EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS TO MY FRIENDSHIP SPAGHETTI I’M MAKING FOR DINNER RIGHT NOW! WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO BRING YOU SOME?”

“That sounds amazing, but we already started making dinner here, but since you mentioned spaghetti, would you and Undyne like to come over for dinner sometime next week? You could come early and help Nikki cook.”

“OH YES, HUMAN! THAT SOUNDS LIKE IT WOULD BE A VERY FUN ENDEAVOR. IS THIS HUMAN NIKKI A CHEF OF PASTA?”

“She is an incredible cook! She makes, dare I say, the worlds best lasagna.”

“WHAT IS LASAGNA?”

“Its a mixture of noodles, sauce, and cheese that you bake. It’s a really good pasta dish!”

“MARVELOUS! I CAN’T WAIT TO EXPAND MY ABILITIES AS THE GREAT PASTA CHEF PAPYRUS! IS IT ALRIGHT IF I BRING MY BROTHER ALONG? HE IS SLIGHTLY ANNOYING BECAUSE HE LIKES TO TELL VERY BAD PUNS ALL THE TIME THAT ONLY HE FINDS FUNNY. BUT HE IS PRETTY GREAT. NOT AS GREAT AS I, OF COURSE, BUT HE COMES CLOSE! OH, AND UNDYNE WILL DEFINITELY WANT TO BRING HER GIRLFRIEND ALPHYS TOO!”

“Anyone you two want to bring along is more than fine. If you’d like to bring some games to play after dinner you can. We have a few that we can try out.”

“I’LL BRING SOME OF MY PUZZLES! YOU’LL LOVE THEM! THEY’RE VERY CHALLENGING, SO YOU MIGHT GET FRUSTRATED BUT I’LL BE THERE TO HELP YOU THROUGH THEM.”

“Perfect. How does Wednesday work for you?”

“I’M FREE THAT DAY! WEDNESDAY IT IS! WE WILL BE AT YOUR HOUSE AT 430.”

“Can’t wait! Now I had one other thing to ask. The fire department has a public safety day in the park coming up in a few weeks, would you all like to come and participate.”

“YES! THAT SOUNDS MARVELOUS AS WELL! UNDYNE NEEDS THAT. SHE SETS HER HOUSE ON FIRE A LOT WHEN SHE’S TRYING TO COOK.”

I laughed out loud at that. “Well, I’d be happy to give her some fire safety tips.”

“SHE WILL APPRECIATE THAT AFTER SHE GETS VERY MAD AT YOU FOR TELLING HER WHAT TO DO.”

“Greaaaaat. I’ll give you some more information on that when it gets a little closer.”

“I AM VERY EXCITED FOR IT!”

“So, I’ll text you my address for dinner. Hope you have a good evening!”

“YOU AS WELL, HUMAN!”

I clicked the end button on the call and moseyed back to help my boys in the kitchen. “Oh boy,” I sighed as a walked into the disaster area that they’d created.


End file.
